Hello, First of all, I'm a newcomer to 40K Online, now lets get to the review.
Game: WarHammer 40K:Dawn of War Dark Crusade Expansion Pack
The Good: -2 Races, the Necrons, and the Tau
-1 New unit for each race
-Continues to use the excellent styling of DoW
-Has multiple strategies to each race that are deeper than most common RTS'
-Better campaign than the first
-Eyecandy Graphics
The Bad: -Balance issues in certain races (See Overview)
-Too many full squads on the screen even for a high end computer makes the game go laggy
-The new unit for each race does little for some teams, and way too much for others (goes in turn with
unbalance)
-Though the new campaign can get annoying when up against the Necrons (they abuse the Resurrection
Orb)
-Painful on the Lower end PCs
-Horrible multitasking on large scale battles!
Overview: This game takes all the good points of Dawn of War and improves the game with two new races, to add to the previous four (or five, should you own the Winter Assault Expansion).
The problem is, with these new races comes *dun dun dun* new balance issues.
The Necrons, while very slow, have the great ability of thier troops being able to ressurect by chance (certain troops only), now you may think this is fair, but as the Necrons do not cost much resources to build (The Warriors are FREE mind you), and that they only capture strategic points to increase their speed of creation, which is when things get overwhelming... Since they build armies free, and regenerate them, they tend to zerg their enemies, and heres where it gets worst: The Necron Lord. Now, he's not the best of the "Heroes" characters, but he has a unique ability to add things called artifacts to him... One in particular is the Ressurection Orb... You think its bad that they regenerate quickly? Well this thing MASS Ressurects on command and passively increases the rate of ressurections for troops around him... With Necron Warriors free, this gives him the unfair unlimited Zerging effect...
Now, done with that rant, move on to the next Balance Issue.
A more minor issue goes with the Tau's Stealth Suits, they are quite unfair, because for one they can't be detected without detectors (and alot of people forget that), they have weapons that are anti everything, they can have commanders, and they can have extra squad leaders...
Now more on the goodstuff, the graphics are pure eyecandy, with each unit having its individual animation played at one time (one of your warrior squad member's may be bash a guy on the head in melee, while the other squad member might be lowblowing him, all at their own times, so you don't see them doing it over and over again in the same few seconds). They also made spectacular effects, and the terrain gets marks from war (craters specifically, which can be used as trenches). Also, when a unit dies, its body remains, leaving the scars of battle (and an unfair advantage to necrons, and the Kroot Carnivores who gain health bonuses by canibalizing corpses).
Lets get to the sound, its indeed spectacular, as you can hear the sounds of weapons clashing, screams of dying men, when you zoom up close to the battle, and world shattering explosions, and the musical score does well to fit the mood of the 40K Universe...
Onto the Gameplay, its absolutely brilliant. Each unit is a squad for infantry, each squad usually composes at default of 3-4 basic members... Now, as your HQ upgrades, you get various upgrades you can add to your squad at the cost of resources... Default if additional squad members, but certain buildings allow you to make them wield different weapons (everything from Plasma guns, Heavy bolters, Flamethrowers, and the occasional grenade launcher), and upgrading the HQ allows you to add Squad leaders (Even to scouts!).
As for Vehicles, they don't benfit from these upgrades, but are extremely tough, and can cause multitudes of damage...
Vehicles and Infantry have seperate population caps making it slightly easier to manage...
Now the bad part of it, the multitasking and micromanagement... Its horrible, on large scale battles.... If you'd prefer you can select everything an rush, but then again, if they used artilary, you could be blown to shreds... So, managing becomes more of a choir than a task, and thats a bad part...
Overall the game does lots to impress, and doesn't lack any polish, there are some minor collision issues, but that can be resolved (happens on large scale selection)...
Every man that gets hit, bleeds, every man dies and blood comes out, it's really impressive in large scales, and it'll get your heart pumping to see the outcome of huge battles (Every try 4v4 Large Scale no holding back full armies? Lag aside, it feels like 40K Heaven)... This game is truly worther of the Warhammer 40K Title...
Score: 9.45/10 If you love 40K, if you love RTS, and if you love large scale wars that can take up to 3 hours (my longest game) this game is definately for you!